New council members, mayor now seated

BINGEN — The first meeting of the new year was a busy one for the Bingen City Council and its four new faces. At the helm was newly elected Mayor Kelsey Ramsey.

As new council members Dale Grinstead-Mayle and Eric Shroder, along with Ramsey, had already taken their oaths, the mayor’s first job was to swear in Erica Almskaar, the representative for Position 5, and Mayor Ramsey’s wife.

City Administrator Krista Loney then took the new class through a mini workshop, which included introductions to the public works team, Bingen-White Salmon Police Chief Mike Hepner, and City Attorney Chris Lanz; paperwork to be completed for the $200 monthly stipend allotted to council members; a discussion of the required trainings; and a briefing on the city’s budget.

Committee assignments followed the workshop, with Grinstead-Mayle keenly stepping up to serve on the Water and Sewer Committee alongside the Streets and Parks Committee. He’s also the city’s representative on the Fire Board and Huckleberry Festival Committee, and was chosen to serve as Mayor Pro Tempore in the absence of Ramsey.

Shroder will join Craig Trummel on the Budget Committee, and Almskaar will sit with Grinstead-Mayle on the Streets and Parks Committee. Ramsey is also on each committee, which allows the group to avoid forming a quorum.

Turning to formal business, council unanimously approved the InterLocal Agreement with Klickitat County for court services. Bingen pays its share of the costs of operating the West District Court based on the previous three years’ average of total cases, which is 7% for 2026. This brings Bingen’s share of the court costs to $28,922.

They next approved the 2026 city staff salary schedule with a 4% cost-of-living raise for all employees, per the collective bargaining agreement.

The final public hearing for the city to adopt a Critical Areas Ordinance was then held, with a single comment from resident Brian Mattingly, who echoed many previous comments about the buffer zone for Dry Creek and Jewett Creek. Washington’s Department of Fish & Wildlife had recommended including a 100-foot buffer around Dry Creek and 194-foot buffer around Jewett Creek. Testimony and Loney’s research indicated that these updates would have proved unnecessarily burdensome for landowners, and the council opted to maintain the current buffers of 50 feet for Dry Creek and 100 feet for Jewett Creek. The ordinance was unanimously adopted.

Loney then led the council through project status updates. The city’s new website goes live next month. A required Commerce Periodic Update is in the works, needing the Critical Areas Ordinance in place before proceeding. The update is a plan showing how the city will monitor primarily environmental compliance while planning for growth. Sections 2 and 3 of the East Steuben Waterline are out for bids, as is the Highway 14 railroad crossing. The city’s new roundabout will feature an art installation known as the Bingen “Round-a-Boat,” with a unique vessel donated by SDS Lumber. Its installation is expected to be completed by June of this year. The Wastewater Treatment Plant improvement project was dependent on the passing of the Critical Areas Ordinance, so it is now on track to proceed.

The next Bingen City Council meeting is set for Tuesday, Jan. 20 at 6 p.m.